
Book -U^'^/3 

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SPEECH 



OF 



^ I. 



S«<a <y <» 




^/ a puhl'ic dinner given to him and the Hon. E. D. White, in 
the city of New Orleans^ 07i the Sth of June, 1831. 




Mr. President and Gentlemen—^ 

I thank you for this kind and flattering sentiment, and the extraor- 
dinary manifestation of enthusiasm on receiving it. I thank you for the 
favourable manner you are pleased to view my public conduct. — I thank 
you for the honour you have done my associate and friend and myself by 
your presence to-day — and this honourable testimony of your approba- 
tion. 

We are happy indeed to see around us so large a portion of our friends 
and constituents, giving their support to those principles of Government 
and those measures of public policy we have found it our duty to ad- 
vocate. 

However gratifying the occasion may be to my feelings, and certainly 
it is enough to flatter the pride and reward the ambition of any man ; I 
derive a higher pleasure from the reflection, that it is not merely to ho- 
nour those who have truly represented your opinions, your feelings and 
your interests, it hasanother andmore elevated purpose. It is the occasion 
of mingling your patriotic sentiments, of doing homage to principles, and 
pledging your faith to the cause and the country. 

This meeting springs, I know, from a deep interest in the principles 
and policy of the Government, an anxious concern arising from the 
events transpiring in our country, and a patriotic solicitude for the ef- 
fects they may produce, and the influence they may exert, on the cha- 
racter of the Government and the condition of the people. It arises 
from a love of country, an attachment to its institutions, a desire to pre- 
serve and perpetuate them, but mingled with the fears and forebodings 
which the circumstances of the times are too well calculated to create. 

Gentlemen, I have devoted my time and talents, such as they are, to 
the service of the state, endeavouring to compensate by industry and zeal 
and usefulness for the want of the high and commanding qualities which 
the station so eminently demands. 

I did not accept the place for the mere dignity it conferred, but as a 

; ... 1 



high and confidential trust, involving the most sacred duties and imposing 
the most solemn obligations. It w^as my highest ambition faithfully to 
represent this state — to render her useful and acceptable services — to 
justify to the country her choice of a representative to merit her confi- 
dence — to reflect back upon her the credit due to her elevated senti- 
ments and liberal principles ; knowing that the only true honour — the 
only one worthy the ambition of a public man, is in doing honour to his 
state, and the only reward that is worthy his acceptance is to be ap- 
proved and honoured by her. 

I was aware on entering on these duties, that in the division of par- 
ties, in the diversity of opinion and in the excitement of the times, it was 
impossible to meet the wishes and views of all — that no talents and that 
no services could command, and that no spirit of moderation or forbear- 
ance could conciliate, the public favour. That I could only look with 
confidence to the support of the people, by a faithful discharge of my 
duties to the state, by the adoption of sound principles and correct views 
of the public interest, and acting steadily and firmly upon them. 

In going, gentlemen, as your representative, into the councils of the 
nation, I was obliged to take a higher and wider view of our relations 
and duties — to look beyond the narrow limits and local interests of the 
state, to our whole country — to that Government which the states have 
by mutual consent adopted for the protection of all — to the nature of the 
union we have formed with the American family, and to all our relations 
with them. 

It became my duty to study the constitution with a view to compre- 
hend the object and the end of its institution, that I might with conscious 
good faith carry its provisions into effect. I therefore looked to the lan- 
guage employed, to the intention of its framers, to cotemporaneous ex- 
position, to judicial opinions, and to all the lights of reason and authori- 
ty — and I can say, that after the most dispassionate consideration, the 
principles I have on public occasions maintained, and those upon which 
I have acted, are the deliberate convictions of my mind. 

It was due I thought to the character of the people of the state, to 
take an enlarged view of the public interest, to give a fair and free con- 
struction to the constitution, and a liberal support to all the measures 
of government necessary and proper to carry into eflfect the powers de- 
legated to it. To make it what it was intended to be, supreme over all 
— for certain specific and defined objects, and with full and adequate 
powers for all the purposes of its institution. 

I have therefore given my support to such principles of construction, 
and such measures of policy, as in my judgment were best calculated to 
sustain the Government, to preserve the Union, to protect the states, to 
maintain the authority of the laws, to advance the true interest of the 
state and the solid glory of the country. These are the views I have 
taken of my duty — it afTords me sincere pleasure to know that they are 
approved by you who have so deep a stake in the community. 

The renewal of the public confidence to which you kindly allude, after 
a severe probation of ten years in a period of unusual popular excitement, 
and great collision of opinion — and during whicji we witnessed two vio- 



lent contests, and extraordinary combinations of men and parties, has 
afforded me the cheering reflection that these principles and the course 
of my public conduct, have not been disapproved. It will animate me 
with new zeal in the cause, and you may rely that whatever events 
await us, every power of my mind shall be exerted to defend your rights, 
to maintain your interests and vindicate your principles. 

What events await us time only will disclose ; there are apprehensions 
and presentiments on the public mind which the circumstances of the 
times have awakened. ■" " 

There will be, I apprehend, a great struggle for certain principles, 
that may terminate in a crisis which may lead to unhappy consequences : 
but I rely upon the love of country and attachment to the union, and 
above all, to the good sense of the people, to avert from the nation events 
so disastrous. 

It seems to me there is in progress a civil revolution, that threatens 
in its course, if not arrested, changes in our Government as radical and 
extensive as those we have witnessed in Europe. — Our Government is 
an experiment still. 

Whether it shall be a Government capable of defending the country, 
of preserving the union, of regulating our commerce and protecting our 
industry, or whether it shall be a weak and miserable confederation of 
states, without power to preserve itself, and without one point of union, 
whether it shflll be sustained in the spirit in which it was instituted, 
founded on the will of a majority and the good faith of the parties, or 
whether it shall dissolve by its own weakness, or be torn asunder by 
violence, whether we shall separate into smaller confederacies, or re- 
solve into the original elements, the states — are the questions now pend- 
ing before the country, the issue of which is in the hands of the people. 

We have a constitution, but its principles are not fixed — the question 
as to the powers of the Government, the means by which it may carry 
them into effect, the extent and limitations of the executive authority 
and the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court, are more unsettled and more 
contested than at the adoption of the constitution. 

Laws passed with all the forms prescribed, with the sanction of the 
Supreme Court, with the acquiescence of a majority of the states, enact- 
ed at different times and under different administrations, are still open 
to angry discussions and violent conflicts, and liable at every change of 
men, at every new combination of parties, to be overruled. Neither 
time, nor public opinion, nor legal adjudications, nor the will of majori- 
ties, give any sanction to the principles of our Government. 

A paj'ty, formidable for their numbers and talents, at this moment 
contend that this government is a mere confederation of states; that al- 
most every important power exerted by it is in derogation of the rights 
of the states, and dangerous to the liberties of the people. The con- 
solidation of the government, to which there is not the slightest approach, 
the destruction of the rights of the states, which cannot enter into the 
contemplation of any party, are continually rung in our ears. Every 
means are employed to provoke hostilily to the government, and espe- 
cially to excite prejudice against the Supreme Court, (that high arbiter, 



appointed by the states themselves, to decide all cases, under the con- 
stitution and laws,) in order to weaken the confidence of the country 
and the authority of the Court, and to prepare the way to strip it of its 
power. Nay, the peace of the country and the union itself arc menac- 
ed. Thus the protection of domestic industry — the system of internal 
improvements— the Bank of the United States, and other laws, among 
the first acts of the government, with forty years' experience of their 
salutary effects, are now denounced as violations of the constitution. It 
is said a single state, however small, may declare those acts void, that 
thereupon the laws will cease and the government end peaceably and 
without a struggle. That if they are not repealed, they will be annull- 
ed, so that the powers of the government must be abandoned at the dic- 
tation of a small minoritv, or they must terminate with a dissolution of 
the union ; peaceably if they can, forcibly if they must. We have the 
alternative to surrender the constitution or every principle and power 
in it, that is not accepted by every state, in which nothing but the name 
and the form will remain. Now, what is this but a confederation, de- 
pending on the concurrent will of twenty-four states, a government 
without power and utterly impracticable; our constitution \yas framed 
to remedy this evil. It was founded upon a principle of majority, both 
of the states and of the people— it had been found that requiring the 
assent of a larger number than a majority of states, paralysed the ope- 
rations of the old Congress, by defeating the most important measures. 
It was foreseen that our system would be imperfect, but it determined to 
leaveitto be improved and settled by time, andreasonand experience, and 
by the judicialdecision of the Court to which all questions were submitted. 
The imperfections of language, the ingenuity of the human mind, the 
arts of disputants and the jea'ousy of power, have raised up objections, 
that must perpetually agitate the country ; they repudiate the Court, 
they disregard the will of the majority ; they defy public opinion ; they 
constitute themselves the arbiters in their own cause; they demand the 
repeal of the laws, and the unconditional surrender of them, (as we 
must therefore make to all others demanding similar concessions) — and 
they menace us with disunion, with all the evils and all the horrors it 
portends, in the hope that our love to country and attachment to union 
will yield to the extravagance and violence of their demands. 

I cannot detain you now with a discussion upon these disputed points, 
it is useless to reason the case, because they admit no umpire — but al- 
low me to present it to you in a few words. The right of the govern- 
ment to protect the domestic industry, arises from the power expressly 
given to regulate commerce. These words are certainly very indefinite 
— but like all others, they must receive a reasonable construction. If 
a system of free trade had been intended, that principle would have 
been expressly established in the constitution. If no laws had been con- 
templated, this clause would not have been inserted — it was inserted evi- 
dently with a view to be a leading principle, and was a moving cause of 
the adoption of the constitution. What did those words mean, and what 
did the convention contemplate by them ? England had the right to regu- 
late trade with her colonies,from which,probably, the words are adopted; 



under this she prescribed such regulations as fostered her own navigation 
— her own commerce and her own manufactures; in fine, her own labour, 
however employed. Her object was a system of her own, essentially En- 
glish; to give to her people the market of her own country, and the trans- 
portation of their own productions, to exclude what she could supply, and 
admit those she could not, under such regulations, restrictions, and dis- 
criminations as she prescribed, and sense of her own interest dictated — 
but under this she could not tax the colonies for rev^enue, and it was the 
attempt to enforce this right beyond the protecting point that produced 
resistance. On the separation, each of the colonies assumed the right 
of regulating commerce for themselves, and did not delegate this power 
to Congress. Under this, the states undertook to regulate their trade 
with a view to protect and foster their labour and their own interests 
— but the interfering and conflicting regulations of the states counter- 
acting each other, rendered the power unavailing, and delegates were 
appointed to a convention to confer on Congress the power of regulating 
commerce. That convention framed this constitution, which transferred 
the power from the states, as it was then understood, to the general go- 
vernment. 

The second act of the first Congress was passed in pursuance of this 
authority, as is expressly stated in the preamble, " to protect domestic 
industry." There is no suggestion in the debate, that the power did 
not belong to Congress, but there is an explicit declaration, that as the 
states had conferred the power to be exerted, and as their manufactures 
had made some progress, it was their duty to carry the design of the 
constitution into effect. In the report of General Hamilton, there is no 
intimation that any doubt existed as to the power. It was reserved for 
modern times, and new men, to make this discovery. 

If the power belongs to Congress, it must be exercised according to 
the wisdom and discretion of that body. If it is deemed oppressive, it 
should be examined with great ca nnd corrected with good faith, and 
every thine may be yielded that xe and moderation demands. No 
concession can be made to violence or menace. As to the demand of 
the surrender of the powder thus conferred, and of the policy to protect 
the labour of the country, it is as unreasonable as the means of extort- 
ing it are improper, and as the hope of accomplishing the object is des- 
perate. As soon as the public debt is paid, and the revenue unneces- 
sary, we shall be able to make reductions that ought to be satisfactory, 
and to which every patriot should look with confidence. But the pay- 
ment of the debt, the immediate modification of the Tariff, and the dis- 
tribution of the surplus funds, and the establishment of a National Bank, 
founded on national resources, are propositions utterly inconsistent with 
each other, and out of time and out of place. They are anticipating 
difficulties and embarrassing the country with unnecessary and ill-di- 
gested schemes. 

It was to be hoped that these questions would have been permitted 
to rest until the proper time. 

The power to make improvements either to facilitate commerce, or 



to assist the operations of war, or to diminish the tinme and expense of 
transporting the mail, is also denied to the Government. 

Can we for a moment suppose that this Government, capable of regu- 
lating foreign commerce, and yet without the power to open the mouths 
of rivers, deepen channels, erect piers, construct harbours, and can we 
suppose these things may be done, and yet under the same power of re- 
gulating commerce among the states, it cannot open the Falls of Ohio; 
or make any other communication or improvement necessary to facili- 
tate internal commerce? 

It is then said the government has the power, but the works must be 
of national importance; and how can this he ascertained but by the wis- 
dom and discretion of Congress; and if they declare it a necessary and 
proper means, to be national and not local, to be judicious and expe- 
dient, is it for the executive to pronounce them otherwise, to oppose his 
will to both houses of Congress, and to defeat the intentions and in fact 
to supersede the legislative power? 

The Bank of the United States presents a similar question. 

Congress having the power over the collection and distribution of the 
revenues and over the whole monetary system, believe a bank to be a 
necessary and proper means to facilitate the collection, safe keeping, 
fj,nd distribution of the public money ; that it will preserve a sound cur- 
rency, equalize exchange, and form a safe and solid resource for the 
Government in times of difficulty and war ; yet this power, thus exerted, 
has been pronounced unconstitutional. Appeals have been made to the 
Supreme Court, and they have affirmed the power ; and yet the Bank, 
twice chartered, which has existed near forty years, which has realized 
all the results upon commerce and currency that were anticipated, is still 
a subject of dispute and cavil; and upon which the executive opposes 
himself to the legislative will ; to the Supreme Court, and to public opi- 
nion. 

Gentlemen, I might enlarge upon these topics, and illustrate them 
with additional references; I should fatigue you and exhaust myself. I 
return from this digression to the point, that there is in progress a civil 
revolution that may entirely change the character of the Government; 
that may leave it a mere confederacy without power, and end at last, 
as they have all ended, in a violent death. 

But I still trust in the virtue and good sense of the country to preserve 
the constitution in the spirit in which it was framed; that they will de- 
pend on the wisdom of Congress, the justice of the Supreme Court, and 
carry it into eifect in good faith. 

However, gentlemen, we may be divided with regard to men, and by 
whatever personal designation we may be known, we do not, I flatter 
ijiyself, differ materially in relation to the principles of Government, the 
system of public policy, or the interests of the state. These must exer- 
cise a permanent influence upon the country, while parties, based upon 
no principle, having reference merely to men, founded on personal pre- 
ferences, or on personal or interested motives, must be temporary in 
their nature. 

If then these principles are of momentous concern to the country, if 



they are to exert a salutary power over the operations of our govern- 
ment, will it not become our duty to stand by our principles and the men 
of our principles? It is impossible to deceive ourselves with the hope 
that we can hold with one party and run with another; or that we can 
adroitly balance ourselves between opposite parties and conflicting in- 
terests ; that we can, by ambiguous speeches and by paltering in a dou- 
ble sense, keep our promise to the country and break it to our con- 
scienc^^v The time has come when every man must take his stand upon 
the side of principle, and by the side of those men who are struggling 
to preserve the stability of the Government, the duration of the Union 
and the safety of the country. 

Gentlemen, I have adverted to the external dangers to which we are 
exposed, I mean from dissentions and disagreement among the members. 
But there are other causes of apprehension in the operations of the Go- 
vernment itself. 

There are two forces constantly acting upon the popular branch of 
the government. The one is on the part of the states, claiming and con- 
testing every important power, and the other on the part of the execu- 
tive, setting up new and doubtful claims to authority, assuming an ab- 
solute control over the operations of the federal government, extending 
his influence over public men, and his control over all the other depart- 
ments of the government, and destroying the balances of the constitution. 
He claims the distribution of all the oflices, honours and emoluments, 
and then a control over all the acts of the government. 

He claims a veto on all laws, on the ground of expediency. He claims 
to set aside the laws of the country, to decide upon their constitution- 
ality and refuses to execute them ; and upon the same principle it is said 
will refuse to execute the mandates of the Supreme Court. He claims 
to decide by his own will, and without reference to the representatives 
of the people, a question of sovereignty too high and transcendent it is 
said for the Supreme Court, and to "surrender the authority of the Go- 
vernment and the rights of the Indians, and to dispense with the obli- 
gations of treaties. 

He claims also to approve of laws with a qualified restriction and li- 
mitation upon them. 

He claims to remove men from office without cause, and even those 
appointed by law for a term of years and approved by the Senate. He 
claims to institute new missions, and to appoint foreign ministers, with- 
out the advice and consent of the Senate. I have not time to enumerate 
the extraordinary claims to power, or to dwell on them. It is sufficient 
to show the temper and views of the executive, to evince how little power 
will be finally left in the hands of the representatives of the people, who 
are themselves elected under a pledge to support him even in these 
usurpations upon their rights, and to show to every reflecting mind the 
point to which this government tends. 

Gentlemen, the extraordinary power now claimed by the executive 
over all offices, honours and emoluments, will itself produce an entire 
revolution of Government. 

I do not speak now of the removals from office without necessity, for 



8 

which there is no warrant in the constitution, or of the system of rewards 
and punishments; of proscription and favouritism ; of the private distress 
or the pubhc injury it creates, although I think it erroneous in princi- 
pie and odious in practice— my views are elevated above all this — they | 
ascend to principles, and to the effect this power will exert on the go- } 
vernment itself 

It has introduced 1 fear a most corrupt and corrupting principle, which 
will diffuse an unseen influence, that must destroy the virtue of the peo- 
ple and the integrity of public men. 

The disposition of the public offices will resolve the whole government 
into the presidential election, and every subordinate office will depend ^^ 
on the influence and zeal, the time and the money spent in promoting j 
the views of the successful candidate. Every motive of honourable am- 
bition will be lost in the struggle for place. A system of rewards and 
punishments, of proscription and favouritism, will then become a part 
of the public administration. Independent men will suffer for opinion's 
sake, while the public honours will be given as the reward of services 
and servility. 

Members of Congress will receive the most distinguished places — the 
conductors of the press will receive the wages of their venal labours, and 
every man will be tempted with the hopes and promises of office, to sell 
himself, his principles and his influence, to run into power with a domi- 
nant party and a successful leader. 

When the executive has obtained such a power over the public mind 
— such a corrupting influence over the representatives of the people — 
such a control over the press — such an ascendancy in the Government 
— there will be but one power, and that wielded by one man, and that 
power capable of perpetuating itself. It requires no prophecy to foretell 
where the government will end. I trust there is still a power capable 
of making resistance to this dangerous principle, which at an unfortu- 
nate moment and under some disastrous influence, has secretly introduced 
its poison into our system. 

From all these causes, gentlemen, I do apprehend that our govern- 
ment is in danger of great innovations and perhaps an entire subversion 
of its principles. It is our duty to warn the country of the danger; to 
watch the progress of these principles, and to defend the constitution 
from every attempt to corrupt or impair it ; — and, gentlemen, shall this 
constitution, this fair fabric, which cost so much blood and treasure; 
which has been called the world's last best hope ; which is associated 
with so many distinguished names and so many illustrious events ; which 
is connected with so many cherished recollections of the past, and so 
many hopes of the future; which has procured so many enjoyments and 
promises so many blessings upon us and our children, be given up a prey 
to faction and violence, or shall we resolve manfully to defend it' 

I conclude, gentlemen, by offering you a sentiment suggested by these 
reflections. 

The constitution of our country — we have sworn to support it. 



Lfc N '10 



